Lynch, Robert (Red)

ORAL HISTORY OF ROBERT (RED) LYNCH
Interviewed by Don Hunnicutt
Filmed by BBB Communications, LLC.
October 9, 2012
MR. HUNNICUTT: This interview has been scheduled through the Center for Oak Ridge Oral History. The date is October 9, 2012, and I am Don Hunnicutt in the home of Robert James “Red” Lynch, 239 East Drive, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to take an oral history from Mr. Lynch about his life in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Thank you, Mr. Lynch, for allowing us to come into your home and take this time to receive your oral history. Please state your name and your age, please.
MR. LYNCH: My name is Robert James Lynch and my age is 85.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And your date of birth?
MR. LYNCH: July 23, 1927, in Cookeville, TN.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Would you prefer me calling you Mr. Lynch or Red?
MR. LYNCH: Red.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Alright. What was your father's name?
MR. LYNCH: William. William Henderson Lynch.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And do you recall what education level he had?
MR. LYNCH: He went through the 8th grade as far as I know.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where was he born?
MR. LYNCH: Buffalo Valley.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Tennessee?
MR. LYNCH: Tennessee.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about your mother? Place of birth and what was her age?
MR. LYNCH: Her age was 91 when she died and she is from Gentry, Tennessee.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was her maiden name?
MR. LYNCH: Thompson.
MR. HUNNICUTT: OK, do you recall her education level?
MR. LYNCH: I don’t know if she finished high school, but she went to Baxter in high school. She even taught, some, but I don’t know if she finished or not.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Baxter referred to as what?
MR. LYNCH: Baxter. Baxter, Tennessee. That’s where, that’s where the high school was, Baxter.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you have any sisters?
MR. LYNCH: Did she have any sisters?
MR. HUNNICUTT: No, did you have any sisters?
MR. LYNCH: Yes sir, two.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was their names?
MR. LYNCH: Betty Wilene and Doris Jean.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about brothers?
MR. LYNCH: I have one brother.
MR. HUNNICUTT: His name?
MR. LYNCH: Don Wilson.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What type of work did your father do before he came to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Before he came to Oak Ridge? He worked in Cookeville, Tennessee, at the Coca-Cola bottling company.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what type of work he did at the bottling company?
MR. LYNCH: Basically he run it, because he mixed it up and can bottled it too.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about your mother? Did she work outside the home?
MR. LYNCH: Not that I know of other than when they first got married, she was teaching a little bit at Baxter.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And raising kids.
MR. LYNCH: Yes sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where was the family living before you came to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Cookeville, Tennessee.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall how long they had lived in Cookeville?
MR. LYNCH: We hadn’t been there long because we had just moved back from Detroit, Michigan. And prior to that, we lived in Cookeville until then. Until we went to Detroit. We were only in Detroit for about a year and a half. Dad and Mom, Mom worked in one of the plants and Dad worked in another up there during the war.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Automobile factory?
MR. LYNCH: One was Packard Motor Company and the other was Bud Wheel.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Can you give me your level of education and what school you went to?
MR. LYNCH: I went to Cookeville, Tennessee, elementary school. I did not finish the 9th grade.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When did you come to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: I came to Oak Ridge, the best I can remember, in September, 1943.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Why did you come to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: My dad was already here, working at the plant.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How did he hear about Oak Ridge and how did he get to Oak Ridge when he came?
MR. LYNCH: We move back from Detroit, Michigan, in ’43, and we did not have much of a place to stay in Cookeville, and I'm not sure how he heard about the work up here, but he came up here and went to work out at the plant just as quick as he got here.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what job duties he had when he worked, which plant did he work at?
MR. LYNCH: Y-12.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what his job duties were?
MR. LYNCH: He never did say and I never did know any of his duties until I was an electrician and I was working out there and I would see him and he would be working, he would be working where they handled all their scrap uranium and he would cut smaller pieces and store it in certain containers.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did he have a car when he came to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: No, I had the car. He had a car, but he gave it to me prior to that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, did you bring him to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: In that car that you just mentioned?
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where did he live when he first came to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Sacramento Hall in West Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Is that a, describe that?
MR. LYNCH: Dormitory, that’s a big dormitory.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Then when did you come to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: I came to Oak Ridge in September. I don’t know the date or anything but it was in September, I remember that and I stayed two weeks with Dad.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was that in ’43?
MR. LYNCH: That was in ’43.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And you stayed in the dormitory with your father?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, for almost two weeks.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Can you recall what the inside of the dormitory looked like, the room?
MR. LYNCH: It was a nice room. You had everything you needed. It had cabinets and all, built in. Basically that’s about the best I can remember. It had a little couch and, he slept on the bed and I slept on the couch.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about bathrooms and showers? Describe where that was located.
MR. LYNCH: Down the hall.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So this was a men’s dormitory?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you had to go down the hall to use the bathroom and shower?
MR. LYNCH: That’s correct, that’s correct.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was the room heated?
MR. LYNCH: I think so, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall how it was heated?
MR. LYNCH: I don’t really know, I would say steam, but, at that time of the year you had the windows open, so I don’t really remember.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, your A.C. [air conditioning] was opening the windows?
MR. LYNCH: Yes. Yes it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did they have screens on the windows?
MR. LYNCH: I can’t recall.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you have maid service?
MR. LYNCH: That I don’t remember either. See I was only there 2 weeks.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Some dormitories had maid service I’ve been told.
MR. LYNCH: I don’t recall that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall how your dad had his clothes cleaned or how he took care of his clothes?
MR. LYNCH: No sir, I don’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about where did you eat? Do you recall that?
MR. LYNCH: There was a cafeteria right up from it. It was just a little bit east of it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you went back to Cookeville and the rest of your family came to Oak Ridge. When did that happen?
MR. LYNCH: That happened in December.
MR. HUNNICUTT: In ’43?
MR. LYNCH: In ’43.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And tell me who all in your family came with you back to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: My older sister was still in Michigan. She hadn’t came back yet. But my other sister and brother and my mother came.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where did you live when came to Oak Ridge with the rest of your family? Where did you live?
MR. LYNCH: The best I can remember is Holston Lane. 119 West Holston Lane.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What type of house is that?
MR. LYNCH: TDU.
MR. HUNNICUTT: TDU?
MR. LYNCH: A TDU is a two family unit.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Can you describe what the inside of that TDU looked like?
MR. LYNCH: The house was real nice. It had a big living room. It had a smaller kitchen, because of the way the heating system worked. It kind of cut out on your kitchen room but the rest of it, it had two nice bedrooms and bath. Nice place really.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you have to share a bedroom with one of your (interrupted)?
MR. LYNCH: My brother.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Your brother. And your sisters I presume bunked in another bedroom?
MR. LYNCH: Yes. Mother and Dad had a bedroom. They had their room and my sister had hers until my other sister came. My other sister didn’t come, I don’t remember when she came, but it was sometime later before she left Michigan.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what type of heat you had in that particular TDU?
MR. LYNCH: Coal.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So it was a coal furnace?
MR. LYNCH: Stoker coal.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where did you get the coal?
MR. LYNCH: I got the coal from, Bridgewater Coal Company had the contract. They delivered the coal.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where did they put the coal?
MR. LYNCH: They put the coal out in a coal box outside. If you had, there was two types of heat. One kind had a stoker in it and the other one had a great big stove, but the stoker was self-fed if you kept the coal coming to it and they fed it from outside, out of that box.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So the box was close to the house?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir. Yes it was. If you had the Stoker. If you didn’t, it was out on the street. Next to the street. That’s where I got a job later delivering coal.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So describe a little bit, what the, how the stoker works, uh, so you’ve got a box outside, and then how does this work?
MR. LYNCH: That is built close to where the front part. The best I can remember about the stoker, where the coal come in. You had a lever there that you could let the coal in and it went into the stoker and the stoker just took the coal and done what it was supposed to do, burned it and you got the heat. You put too much, you had a damper there that you had to control it to keep it from getting too hot. That’s the best I can remember about it, but it was a stoker.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was that an auger like affair that took the coal?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, it was. Yes, sir. So it fed it in.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Fed it in. So at this time, was your father’s job still the same as when he first came to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Still the same. So what about your sisters and brother when they came to live in Oak Ridge? Did they attend any of the Oak Ridge School System?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, they did. My younger brother and younger sister did. My other sister didn’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Can you remember which schools they attended?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, the Oak Ridge High School. They graduated from there. My younger brother went to Highland View School one or two years before he went to high school.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That’s an elementary school?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And then did he go to the high school?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about your mother? Did she ever work when she came to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: No, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: She was a stay at home mom?
MR. LYNCH: Stay at home mom.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about your sisters or your brother? Did they work when they got up to the age to work?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, later. Later, my sister went to work for Miller’s.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where did you do your grocery shopping? Or your mother did the shopping, I presume. Where do you recall that she did most of the grocery shopping?
MR. LYNCH: Dad done the grocery shopping and whatever store he could get whatever he wanted was where he done it. It was a little different right after that that I got married because I had a friend that got me a card for the PX down there and it helped me a whole lot because I wasn’t making no money. That was rough. And us I could get stuff down there pretty cheap.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, the PX, what’s the PX?
MR. LYNCH: That’s the Army. The Army PX.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now where was that located?
MR. LYNCH: That was located down where Downtown is except closer to the Turnpike.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about washing clothes? Did your mother…do you recall how she did that?
MR. LYNCH: Not really. When you think about it, she either had to done it… I guess she done it in a tub with a rub board. Of course we was all used to that before we come, but I’m pretty sure that’s what she done. She washed it in a rub board.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So your dad did the shopping?
MR. LYNCH: He done the grocery shopping.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And if your mother needed to go to the store to buy clothes or something other than groceries, how did she get to the store?
MR. LYNCH: She would either get there by me taking her or my older sister or Dad. That was the three that could drive.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about the bus service? Do you recall utilizing the bus service?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, we did. The bus service was pretty good then.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall how much it cost to ride the bus?
MR. LYNCH: I was thinking nine cents, but I’m not sure about that, but you could buy the little tokens that had the hole in it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So if you wanted to go from one end of Oak Ridge to the other on the bus, kind of describe how you went about doing that.
MR. LYNCH: You would have to know the bus routes to know which one to transfer to, but they would give you a transfer and you could transfer to another bus to go wherever you wanted to go.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So where you lived you probably rode the bus to Jefferson Bus Terminal and then from there further east? Is that kind of the route that was probably taken?
MR. LYNCH: Some of the family probably would you know, but being a young man, it wasn’t nothing for me to walk to Jefferson. I did more walking than I done anything else.
MR. HUNNICUTT: About how far was that?
MR. LYNCH: Oh, roughly a mile, mile and a half.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So when you’re referring to Jefferson, what is Jefferson?
MR. LYNCH: That was the shopping center they had down there and you had to keep an eye on it because you might see a line down there and want to get in it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Oh, stand in line for?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir. For whatever they had. You didn’t ask, you just got in it. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So Jefferson Shopping Center…Do you recall what was there? What type stores were at Jefferson Shopping Center?
MR. LYNCH: They was a little grocery store at the west end. They was a drugstore, a barbershop and a pool room, to the best of my memory.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall any, any happenings that happened to you at Jefferson Shopping Center that happened to you that you’d like to talk about?
MR. LYNCH: The wife and I went there an awful lot skating… they had a skating rink down there and we spent lot of time down there skating.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So other than skating, what else did you do for recreational activities?
MR. LYNCH: You could go bowling, go to the movie, basketball. I used to play basketball on a team, that we’d play teams around here in town and go different places and play.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you remember the name of the team?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah I do. Tri-County. Trico Motors. That’s who sponsored it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall where Trico Motors was located?
MR. LYNCH: Tri was located, how would I describe it? It was down on the Turnpike before you get to Illinois Avenue, about a block this side of it on the left going west.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you know what type of automobiles they sold at Trico motors?
MR. LYNCH: They had Oldsmobile and Pontiac, but before that they had… it’s an older car. It didn’t last long.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Packards?
MR. LYNCH: No.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, it doesn’t matter. I was just curious.
MR. LYNCH: Ok. But, they had the dealership for that. It was the only one around, really.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you played basketball a lot on the team. Do you remember some of your team members?
MR. LYNCH: Bill O’Kain was on it. What was the one we were talking about?
MR. HUNNICUTT: How about Carl Sanders?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, yeah, Carl Sanders. He was one of our favorites, because he was extra tall and played center. Glen Moses, Butterini, “Butter” Davis.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you ever visit the bowling centers around town?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, I did.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Which one did you visit more than the others and what was the name of that bowling center?
MR. LYNCH: I bowled mostly at Grove Center. Some at Jefferson.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How about movies? You attended movies, I guess, with your then girlfriend.
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And, was that a routine, once a week, or two or three times a week?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, we went to more drive-ins than anything else! (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: What drive-in was in the area at that time?
MR. LYNCH: Well, they was the one at, on Illinois Avenue and one at Elza Gate.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall the names of those drive-ins?
MR. LYNCH: Skyway was at Illinois and I can’t remember the one out at Elza Gate.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, after going to drive-ins and bowling centers and skating and basketball, did you ever do any hunting or fishing?
MR. LYNCH: I hunted. Squirrel hunt… Fish. Done a little fishing where you wasn’t really supposed to fish, but it was pretty good fishing.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about hunting? I don’t think they allowed guns in town, did they?
MR. LYNCH: The type weapon I used they didn’t really care too much about it. I was lucky to have an early model air rifle that was strong enough if you knew how to pump it and how to fix it was strong enough to kill a squirrel with it and that’s what we used.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did that air rifle shoot BBs or pellets?
MR. LYNCH: It shot pellets. .22-caliber.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, tell me about some of the places you went to go fishing.
MR. LYNCH: Most of the time we’d go down to K-25. We’d go down to Blair Road and cross the creek down there. We’d go back through the guard gate then and we’d go out there. There was a place that had an old bridge that they had condemned and blocked off, but you could walk across it and all this, that, and the other, and if it was raining we’d fish under it and if it wasn’t we would walk. And there was a guy that kept a boat down there that wasn’t supposed to be down there and we’d go get that boat. And we done a lot of illegal fishing then. We had these firecrackers with dynamite fuses in them, you know? You could get you a pretty good sized ball of clay mud and if you knew how to patch up one of them firecrackers, if you could find the right place to drop it and light it, why you’d get you some fish. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you walked to all these fishing holes?
MR. LYNCH: Until we got the boat, yeah, we walked to get the boat. Then we had to go out in the boat and bail the water out.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was that on Poplar Creek?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, it was. Backwater Poplar Creek.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, tell me about going through the guard gate down on Blair Rd. Did the guards want to know what you were doing?
MR. LYNCH: Not really. Just show them your pass, your badge.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, tell me about this badge. Is it something you had to have every day?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, you did. You had to have your badge if you went out the gate. You had to have it or you weren’t going out the gate.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was on the badge?
MR. LYNCH: Your picture and your name.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall when you went to get your badge and where it was that you went?
MR. LYNCH: Not for sure, but I believe it was Townsite.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let’s go back to your skating. Tell me about the roller hockey league that you played in.
MR. LYNCH: It was a travelling league, kind of like basketball. We only went to Nashville one time, but we went to Birmingham several times and we’d play different teams down there. Lacey Meyers, I believe was the guy and he would sponsor our bus trip down there and back. I was also captain of the “Monsanto” Roller Hockey Team; we often played the “Carbide” team.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Ok, you mentioned earlier about a young lady in your life. Who was that person?
MR. LYNCH: That was Helen. Helen Lynch. My wife.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was her maiden name?
MR. LYNCH: Davis, Helen Christine.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And how did you meet her?
MR. LYNCH: I met her at Miller’s. The first job I had. She worked in the Book Department and I delivered furniture. Helen lived on Hillside Road with her family. There was a trail between Hillside and West Holston Lane.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Miller’s department store?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where was that located?
MR. LYNCH: Jackson Square.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So what did you two do before you got married?
MR. LYNCH: We skated a lot. We bowled a lot. I had a car so we could travel around. We didn’t like to go out the gates much, but we’d travel around town and go to different places.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So when did the time come that you popped the question to Helen to get married?
MR. LYNCH: That was when her dad got laid off from the plant and he was, the family was going to go back to Chattanooga. Her dad would not leave an unmarried daughter here. We eloped, and we got married, September 8th, 1946. We went to Rossville, Georgia.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How’d you get there?
MR. LYNCH: In my 1933 Chevrolet. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, when you came back from Georgia, where did you two live?
MR. LYNCH: Let’s see….I lived with my dad.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And that was in the TDU?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That kind of got pretty crowded didn’t it?
MR. LYNCH: It did. It did get crowded, but later in life it got crowded worse because I had a flat top and he got laid off.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So when you lived in the TDU with your new bride and your dad and mom and your siblings, where did you two sleep?
MR. LYNCH: I think, I think we got our younger sister out with our older sister and we got the bedroom.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So about how long did you live there with them?
MR. LYNCH: Not very long, because I got a job with Bridgewater Coal Company. I had a friend, Conie Jenkins, that worked out there and, he knew I was needing a house bad. We were big buddies and he said, “I can get you the job, if you’ll drive a truck”, and I said, “Well, yeah I can handle that,” because the colored guys out there if they wanted a break they would just put it in granny and pop the clutch and break an axle and set there for about 15, 20, 30 minutes until he could change it so he got me to shuttle the coal trucks. All I done was, they would tell me, or I could figure it out after a while, after doing it a while, I knew where the next truck would run out, so I’d just swap trucks and come back and get another load. I also helped Conie repair the trucks.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, where would you deliver the coal to?
MR. LYNCH: To the drivers that had emptied that was delivering coal to the houses that had coal boxes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Across the city?
MR. LYNCH: Yes sir. All over.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So how long did you work there?
MR. LYNCH: Maybe a year.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where did you go to employment after that?
MR. LYNCH: I went to AEC at Division 5. [Story: I got a refrigerator for the guys on Warehouse Road.]
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was your job duties there?
MR. LYNCH: I was an Automobile Parts Clerk. I issued parts to the mechanics when they’d come up to the window that worked out in the garage.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How long did you work on that job?
MR. LYNCH: Until I got transferred.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Transferred to where?
MR. LYNCH: To Anniston, Alabama. I was working USED, AEC, you know government, and they transferred me there with Col. Ben B. Green. I bought his ’46 Chevrolet and sold my ‘33.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, when you went to Anniston, Alabama, what did you do down there?
MR. LYNCH: I was a Parts Identifier.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What does that mean, Parts Identifier?
MR. LYNCH: That means they would have stuff shipped in to them at the depot down there that maybe the tags got lost or could be just a pile of stuff that they wanted to get put where it was supposed to go, but they didn’t know where it went and you had to get the numbers and everything. You had books and codes you could follow and you could find out where it went to. And they had warehouses, different warehouses that you put it in.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How long did you stay in Alabama?
MR. LYNCH: About a year. Col. Green sold me his car.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And then where did you go from?
MR. LYNCH: I came back to Oak Ridge with, no, let’s see. I came back to the same place at that warehouse, but it was J.A. Jones, J.A. Jones had it and I worked for them a little while.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now was the job with Bridgewater Coal Company before this or after this?
MR. LYNCH: It was before that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Before that. So you came back to Oak Ridge to work at the same location you worked at before you went to Alabama?
MR. LYNCH: I was a Parts Identifier again on the night shift for J.A. Jones.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And tell me again about getting on a list for a house. How did that work?
MR. LYNCH: I don’t recall ever, I don’t recall ever getting on a list for a house, but to get a house, you had to work for a company that had enough allotments of houses to have one available or someone had moved out of.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, when you went to Alabama, did your wife go with you at that time?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir. But came back to Oak Ridge to have our baby.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And she lived with you and she came back to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And, so where did you live when you came back to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Oooooh, that’s a good one. In a flat top on Indian Place.
MR. HUNNICUTT: A flat top. Tell me about what a flat top looks like.
MR. LYNCH: It’s just flat. (Laughter) It was a well-built house. Out of three-quarter plywood and it had all the cabinets and everything you needed in it. It had the beds and you just really, just had to move in. It had the refrigerator and the stove. It was ready for you when you got there.
MR. HUNNICUTT: It was already furnished?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How many bedrooms was the flat top?
MR. LYNCH: You could get a one, two or a three bedrooms.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And you had which type?
MR. LYNCH: I had a two bedroom.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And how did you heat that flat top?
MR. LYNCH: How did I heat that flat top? Coal stove. Coal stove. Sat in the front room.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Same type of air condition as the TDU? Just open the window?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. (Laughter) They wasn’t as big, but they worked.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what type of floors was in the flat top?
MR. LYNCH: Plywood and they had linoleum on them.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So about how long did you live at Indian Place?
MR. LYNCH: I lived there about a year or two.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And then where did you and your wife move to?
MR. LYNCH: From Indian Place, where’d I go? Illinois Avenue. I moved to Illinois Avenue.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And what type of house was that?
MR. LYNCH: That was a TDU. Back with my mother and father.
MR. HUNNICUTT: I see.
MR. LYNCH: Uh, huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, was your sisters and your brother still living there at the same time?
MR. LYNCH: No, no. My big sister wasn’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you lived with your parents again and how long did you live there?
MR. LYNCH: Not long. Not long.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Then where did you move to?
MR. LYNCH: I moved to Jefferson Avenue, 290-292. It was a TDU.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When did you obtain a house for your own?
MR. LYNCH: That’s when I worked for Bridgewater Coal.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, this is after you moved out of your parent’s house the second time?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When you moved out, and you lived, do you recall where that was?
MR. LYNCH: 211 Illinois Avenue.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And that was a flat top?
MR. LYNCH: No, sir, TDU.
MR. HUNNICUTT: TDU. So you’ve lived in 3 different TDU’s. Two in the same and one different?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now did you buy the TDU as it became available later on?
MR. LYNCH: The one on Jefferson Avenue. I bought it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, you mentioned earlier that your father ended up living with you. Tell me about that.
MR. LYNCH: He got laid off at Y-12 and we had the flat top and at that time, he was having trouble getting a job. He didn’t live with me too long and he got a job at the schools. Custodian at the schools.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, when your father lived with you, your mother and sisters and brother lived with you?
MR. LYNCH: Everybody lived in the flat top.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And that was a two bedroom?
MR. LYNCH: Best I can remember. It could of been a three, but best I don’t think it was. Believe it was two bedroom.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And everybody kind of bunked on top of each other, I presume?
MR. LYNCH: Well, where ever you could… on couches. But that didn’t last very long.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When was your first, did you have children?
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When was the first one born?
MR. LYNCH: Born in 1949.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where were you living when this?
MR. LYNCH: Anniston, Alabama.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was this a boy or a girl?
MR. LYNCH: It was a girl.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And her name?
MR. LYNCH: Barbara Ann.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you lived on Indian Place in ‘49 when Barbara Ann was born?
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And that was a flat top.
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And your parents weren’t living with you at that time?
MR. LYNCH: No, sir. (Laughter) Had it by myself. Didn’t I?
MR. HUNNICUTT: And then, did you move to Illinois Avenue after that?
MR. LYNCH: I must have because things were getting worked up pretty good.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That was in the TDU?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah. That’s when the government was wanting to get rid of everybody and the city and the whole works. They was having trouble debating over what to do with it, so they sold it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, did your wife ever work?
MR. LYNCH: Oh yes. She worked at Miller’s.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That was when you first met her?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And do you recall where else she worked?
MR. LYNCH: Yes. She worked at the drug store and she worked at two different banks, the Hamilton Bank and the Bank of Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Which drug store was that?
MR. LYNCH: Service Drug. She worked at Townsite and she worked at Grove Center.
MR. HUNNICUTT: At the drug store at Grove Center?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall the name of that one?
MR. LYNCH: No, I don’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where was the bank located and what was the name of the bank?
MR. LYNCH: The bank was Hamilton National Bank and it was at Townsite and then after that, she I think that she had quit and they wanted her to work part time at the Bank of Oak Ridge and she worked there for a while.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You referred to Jackson Square and Townsite. What’s the difference in the two?
MR. LYNCH: No difference. Same place.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was Townsite the early name for what we call Jackson Square today?
MR. LYNCH: I think it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Ok, so now we’re in a TDU?
MR. LYNCH: Um hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And you’ve got a child.
MR. LYNCH: Yep.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And who you were working for at this time?
MR. LYNCH: Well, I was working for Maxim Construction out at K-25.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let me go back up a minute and ask about your mother. Other than being a house wife, did she do anything else outside the home for recreation, or things like that?
MR. LYNCH: Not really. She grew a little garden with Dad, you know, and that’s, that was her, that and flowers is all she cared anything about, being outside.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did she belong to any organizations?
MR. LYNCH: She was with the Sweet Adelines for quite a while and she was an extremely good seamstress. She sewed all the time. She made a lot of the kid’s clothes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did she play any musical instruments?
MR. LYNCH: She could play French harp a little bit.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When you say French Harp, is that a harmonica?
MR. LYNCH: Um hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about your dad? Did he do, what did he do outside of the home other than working? Did he garden or anything like that?
MR. LYNCH: He had a big garden. Up on Jefferson he had the two places down below the house, quite a ways. He’d garden down there a lot and then he had another down below Jefferson, down below Shoney’s. He had a garden down there for several years. Dad liked to hunt. He liked for me to drive too when we went hunting because we went all the way to Cookeville, Tennessee, and we’d go down there and hunt a lot. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Tell me about your sisters, their names again and did they marry?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, my older sister was Betty Willean and my younger sister was Doris Jean. Betty married a boy, Bruce Mynatt that had just come back from the Army that was a close friend of my wife’s that they lived pretty close together in Chattanooga, Lupton City, Tennessee. My sister Jean married, she worked at X-10 and she met her husband Harold Starr at the drugstore at Grove Center and they were married. He was a doctor and they moved them Galveston, Texas, then to Longview, Washington.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did they have any children?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, my sister had a boy and a girl, Betty. And Jean had two boys and one girl.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do they still live in the area?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, they do.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, the sister that married the doctor and moved to Washington state are they still in Washington?
MR. LYNCH: Well, he is dead, but the rest of them are still, no, one of the boys, moved to Arizona.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Tell me about what you did as far as community activities. Did you volunteer at any particular community or serve on any church committees or attend churches of any kind here?
MR. LYNCH: I was a charter member at Highland View Church of Christ. I was their chief electrician for a long time and things like that. I done a lot of electrical work on the side for people. I done some work down at the Boy’s Club when they got to where they needed upgrade and all, you know? The local over there volunteered to give them electricians to help with that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall any other community service that you did besides electrical work?
MR. LYNCH: Not really, except work on people’s cars. I done a lot of car work.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now when you worked on people’s cars or you did the electrical work, did you get paid for that work?
MR. LYNCH: I didn’t get paid for the electrical. I got paid for working on cars.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you do the car work at your house?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, I did. There was one, there was one guy that lived on Illinois Avenue that was in a TDU two doors up from when we lived there with Dad. He worked at a car lot down at Downtown and the guy that owned it was from Lenoir City. And they had me doing their work like if they sold a car that they didn’t like because it was missing, it wouldn’t do this, it wouldn’t do that, I’d pull the head and do the valves. Lefty Brown would let me use his rack down there. I put clutches in them. Stuff like that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Who was Lefty Brown?
MR. LYNCH: He was the one that owned the Pure Service Station down at West End on the left.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When you refer to the West End, was that the Jefferson area?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, that’s the service station.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let me go back to your housing. You lived in several different places and it’s kind of intriguing. You lived in a TDU and your father lived with you for a while there. And, did you sell that house and where did you go from there?
MR. LYNCH: I sold it to my dad. My dad wanted to buy it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall how much that was?
MR. LYNCH: $2800, I think.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So when you sold the house to your dad, where did you move then and who moved with you? Your wife and your daughter?
MR. LYNCH: My wife moved here, and Bobbie (Barbara), in 1962 to 239 East Drive.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where we are today?
MR. LYNCH: Right. Right so.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, you’ve had quite an adventure in moving from one place to another.
MR. LYNCH: Been around.
MR. HUNNICUTT: There is a particular automobile that I’d like to touch a little bit on. I think you called it your “Red’s 1933 Chevy”.
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Can you give me a little description of what we are talking about?
MR. LYNCH: Well, a 1933 Chevrolet, was one of them standard and the Master had the knee action and General Motors had a good thing going there until people couldn’t keep them up and keep oil in them and they went back to the standard and I had the standard. And that’s what I went to Rossville to get married in. It’s a good car, roomy, three speed shift. Had a six cylinder engine in it and I learned how to keep it going. Dad, he told me I would probably tear it up and I did, but I fixed it. I learned how to do the rods, tighten the rods. They didn’t have inserts in them then. They just had Babbitt rods and I learned how to do that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Someone told me about a story you told them about a ride that you gave a friend. Do you recall that in that ’33 Chevrolet, you picked up someone and gave them a ride and they paid you in a certain way?
MR. LYNCH: You’re not, yes, you’re referring to probably going out the gate and going to the liquor, where you could buy whiskey and I done that a time or two for a friend.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So how did they pay you?
MR. LYNCH: A little whiskey. An extra bottle. (Laughs)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So when you went home with that bottle of whiskey, what kind of reaction did your wife have?
MR. LYNCH: She found the back door and thrown it out and down the woods. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, I assume she guessed you needed the money more than the whiskey.
MR. LYNCH: Well, I quit hauling whiskey. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: One other little story that I’d like to touch on about that particular ’33 Chevrolet. I was told that you and Helen were pulled over by the military police one time.
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, we was out browsing around, you know, nice rainy evening and kind of dark you know, and this, that and the other. And he pulled me over and I didn’t know why, but I rolled down the window down, you know, and I asked him what was wrong and he said I had a gutted muffler and I said, “No, sir, I don’t have no gutted muffler”, and he said, “Oh, you do”, and I said, “Well, you’ve got a flashlight, why don’t you get down there and see.” The officer then asked for my driver’s license. I asked, “Which one? Government or state?” He then decided I didn’t have a gutted muffler and left. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: That’s quite a story. Fast forward a little bit back to when you got into the Electrical 270 Union and started doing electrical through them. Where did you work then?
MR. LYNCH: I worked for contractors at all three plants and some here in Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Those plants being?
MR. LYNCH: Union Carbide and K-25 and X-10.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you work at Y-12, also?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you retire as an electrician?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, I did.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When did you retire?
MR. LYNCH: I retired in 1990, at 62.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you do any electrical work today?
MR. LYNCH: No, sir, not if I can get out of it. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So what do you and your wife, Helen, do now for enjoyment?
MRS. LYNCH: We enjoy everything!
MR. LYNCH: Well, yeah, eating a lot.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You like to eat out a lot?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, all the time.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Oak Ridge seems to have a lot of eating places, don’t they?
MR. LYNCH: They’ve got some good places to eat.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Is there anything else you can think of that I haven’t touched on that you’d like to tell me?
MR. LYNCH: You were talking about the basketball team and I don’t know if you’re interested or not, but they’re having that Wheat thing down there now and I’m quite familiar with Wheat, the back road before they changed it, went right by the school.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, when you’re referring to Wheat, what are you referring to?
MR. LYNCH: The old school that was right on the Turnpike down there before Blair Road turns.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, Wheat was a community in early Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, it was. Yes, it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And tell me again about what happened at the school at Wheat.
MR. LYNCH: They would let us use the gym down there on the weekends and we played basketball down there. Now, if you ever played basketball on an oiled floor, you’ve got a good experience coming if you haven’t, because your feet don’t, they’re not very sturdy and we played at Wartburg like that and they were that way, oiled floors. A lot of the old schools was oiled floors.
MR. HUNNICUTT: This was the basketball league you mentioned earlier with Carl Sanders?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And some of the other players?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir. That was it. That’s the players, that’s where we went. We played at Wheat quite a bit.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you traveled from Oak Ridge to different towns to play basketball?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, tell me how you worked that related to the passes going in and out of Oak Ridge.
MR. LYNCH: Everybody had a pass.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about teams that came to Oak Ridge? Do you know how they worked that?
MR. LYNCH: I’m not sure about that, now. I can’t, I can’t answer that. I know they had to get a pass. You had to get a pass.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you ever play basketball in the old Scarboro School?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, I did.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you played at Scarboro and Wheat?
MR. LYNCH: Yes. Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was there any other places in the city – inside the city - you played?
MR. LYNCH: I can’t remember, but we would, we would play in some of the school gyms. But I’m not sure.
MR. HUNNICUTT: The high school, as well?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Can you think of anything else you’d like to relate?
MR. LYNCH: I didn’t tell you about my good luck being a time keeper for Maxim down at K-25. I got familiar with the crafts that I had to check during the day and keep their time and they had a, they had a brass badge number and I remembered all them after you come through the line once or twice, I would know you from then on because it made it easy, and I got real familiar with the electrical and that’s how I got in the electrical local and I took it from there. Wade Carpenter recognized my ability and got me into the Electrical Program. Thus, I became the outstanding Apprentence in that program. I became an electrician and electrical wielder with IBEW 270.
MR. HUNNICUTT: As you see Oak Ridge today versus when you first come to Oak Ridge, how do you see Oak Ridge as growing or has it kind of got to a point and stopped? What’s your view on that?
MR. LYNCH: It’d kind of be like a dream if you came here when I did and then you could come, come back and see what I’m seeing. It’s just changed so much, it’s unbelievable. People have no idea what it was like back then.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you ever have any thoughts of leaving Oak Ridge and not living here?
MR. LYNCH: No, not really. I didn’t like living here, but no, I didn’t. I stayed with the family.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Why did you not like living in Oak Ridge in the early days?
MR. LYNCH: Well, everything was, it was, it’s like, you’d never seen anything like that before. The city was dry, it was ok one day and the next day it’d be muddy. You couldn’t get around. The housing and the sidewalks, they were boardwalks, you’d have to be careful every once in a while one of them boards wouldn’t do what they was supposed to do, and sometimes they’d come get you and you’d have to move your car because they was going to plow your street up, then they wasn’t paved and, they’d shovel all your dirt, all the gravel, in the middle, they’d shovel all that up in the middle with a big patrol grader and they’d start it back in layers and they’d roll it. Wet it and roll it. Start it back in layers and wet it and roll it and when they got done it was just like it was paved and it wouldn’t last, but it was good while it lasted. Just things like that that you wasn’t used to. And if you wanted to go anywhere you had to catch a bus if you didn’t have a car, and had to wait on a bus, but you could find out, the bus driver would tell you where to catch the next to go somewhere.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So if you had your chance to do it over again, would you do the same thing you did?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, I would, because I wouldn’t met my wife. (Laughter) I didn’t get in, but it didn’t matter, I didn’t stay too long anyway. I lived in two trailers. (Laughter)
DAUGHTER (BARBARA “BOBBIE” LYNCH MARTIN): Yeah, when they first married, they lived at Gamble Valley in a trailer park.
MR. LYNCH: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: See that wasn’t on here, so I couldn’t touch on that.
DAUGHTER: And then they moved to Finch Way over at…
MR. LYNCH: Grove Center.
DAUGHTER: Grove Center.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That would have been interesting to describe the trailer, because a lot of people don’t know about how those were.
DAUGHTER: Yeah, he should have described that one real good! (Laughter)
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, not all of it. No, not all of it.
DAUGHTER: No, no. (Laughter)
MR. LYNCH: What happened with them trailers, the trailer wasn’t so bad. We didn’t know any better then, but you had to go whatever you call it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: The bath house?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, yeah. You done your washing, you done your bathing, you done everything. They had the men’s and they had the lady’s and of course, the ladies, the men had to go take the ladies.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You had water in a tank above the sink, didn’t you? So when you opened the faucet, the water would run out?
MR. LYNCH: In some, in some. The ones in Grove Center, they didn’t have anything. They didn’t have bathrooms. They didn’t have nothing. You had a pot with a lid on it and you didn’t have any water. You brought your water. But they were, they were actually movable trailers, that, they could move. It had the frame and the wheels still on there, but they were small, and we lived in them.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And the sink water just ran out on the ground outside the ground, didn’t it?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, that’s it, that’s it. No plumbing. No nothing.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Yeah.
MR. LYNCH: Nothing.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, it’s been a pleasure interviewing you Red and I thank you for your time.
MR. LYNCH: Glad to do it, glad to do it. Yes, sir.
[End of Interview]
[Editor’s Note: Portions of this transcript have been edited at the request of Mr. Lynch and his family. The corresponding audio and video portions remain unchanged.]

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ORAL HISTORY OF ROBERT (RED) LYNCH
Interviewed by Don Hunnicutt
Filmed by BBB Communications, LLC.
October 9, 2012
MR. HUNNICUTT: This interview has been scheduled through the Center for Oak Ridge Oral History. The date is October 9, 2012, and I am Don Hunnicutt in the home of Robert James “Red” Lynch, 239 East Drive, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to take an oral history from Mr. Lynch about his life in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Thank you, Mr. Lynch, for allowing us to come into your home and take this time to receive your oral history. Please state your name and your age, please.
MR. LYNCH: My name is Robert James Lynch and my age is 85.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And your date of birth?
MR. LYNCH: July 23, 1927, in Cookeville, TN.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Would you prefer me calling you Mr. Lynch or Red?
MR. LYNCH: Red.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Alright. What was your father's name?
MR. LYNCH: William. William Henderson Lynch.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And do you recall what education level he had?
MR. LYNCH: He went through the 8th grade as far as I know.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where was he born?
MR. LYNCH: Buffalo Valley.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Tennessee?
MR. LYNCH: Tennessee.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about your mother? Place of birth and what was her age?
MR. LYNCH: Her age was 91 when she died and she is from Gentry, Tennessee.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was her maiden name?
MR. LYNCH: Thompson.
MR. HUNNICUTT: OK, do you recall her education level?
MR. LYNCH: I don’t know if she finished high school, but she went to Baxter in high school. She even taught, some, but I don’t know if she finished or not.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Baxter referred to as what?
MR. LYNCH: Baxter. Baxter, Tennessee. That’s where, that’s where the high school was, Baxter.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you have any sisters?
MR. LYNCH: Did she have any sisters?
MR. HUNNICUTT: No, did you have any sisters?
MR. LYNCH: Yes sir, two.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was their names?
MR. LYNCH: Betty Wilene and Doris Jean.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about brothers?
MR. LYNCH: I have one brother.
MR. HUNNICUTT: His name?
MR. LYNCH: Don Wilson.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What type of work did your father do before he came to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Before he came to Oak Ridge? He worked in Cookeville, Tennessee, at the Coca-Cola bottling company.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what type of work he did at the bottling company?
MR. LYNCH: Basically he run it, because he mixed it up and can bottled it too.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about your mother? Did she work outside the home?
MR. LYNCH: Not that I know of other than when they first got married, she was teaching a little bit at Baxter.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And raising kids.
MR. LYNCH: Yes sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where was the family living before you came to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Cookeville, Tennessee.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall how long they had lived in Cookeville?
MR. LYNCH: We hadn’t been there long because we had just moved back from Detroit, Michigan. And prior to that, we lived in Cookeville until then. Until we went to Detroit. We were only in Detroit for about a year and a half. Dad and Mom, Mom worked in one of the plants and Dad worked in another up there during the war.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Automobile factory?
MR. LYNCH: One was Packard Motor Company and the other was Bud Wheel.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Can you give me your level of education and what school you went to?
MR. LYNCH: I went to Cookeville, Tennessee, elementary school. I did not finish the 9th grade.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When did you come to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: I came to Oak Ridge, the best I can remember, in September, 1943.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Why did you come to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: My dad was already here, working at the plant.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How did he hear about Oak Ridge and how did he get to Oak Ridge when he came?
MR. LYNCH: We move back from Detroit, Michigan, in ’43, and we did not have much of a place to stay in Cookeville, and I'm not sure how he heard about the work up here, but he came up here and went to work out at the plant just as quick as he got here.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what job duties he had when he worked, which plant did he work at?
MR. LYNCH: Y-12.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what his job duties were?
MR. LYNCH: He never did say and I never did know any of his duties until I was an electrician and I was working out there and I would see him and he would be working, he would be working where they handled all their scrap uranium and he would cut smaller pieces and store it in certain containers.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did he have a car when he came to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: No, I had the car. He had a car, but he gave it to me prior to that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, did you bring him to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: In that car that you just mentioned?
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where did he live when he first came to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Sacramento Hall in West Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Is that a, describe that?
MR. LYNCH: Dormitory, that’s a big dormitory.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Then when did you come to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: I came to Oak Ridge in September. I don’t know the date or anything but it was in September, I remember that and I stayed two weeks with Dad.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was that in ’43?
MR. LYNCH: That was in ’43.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And you stayed in the dormitory with your father?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, for almost two weeks.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Can you recall what the inside of the dormitory looked like, the room?
MR. LYNCH: It was a nice room. You had everything you needed. It had cabinets and all, built in. Basically that’s about the best I can remember. It had a little couch and, he slept on the bed and I slept on the couch.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about bathrooms and showers? Describe where that was located.
MR. LYNCH: Down the hall.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So this was a men’s dormitory?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you had to go down the hall to use the bathroom and shower?
MR. LYNCH: That’s correct, that’s correct.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was the room heated?
MR. LYNCH: I think so, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall how it was heated?
MR. LYNCH: I don’t really know, I would say steam, but, at that time of the year you had the windows open, so I don’t really remember.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, your A.C. [air conditioning] was opening the windows?
MR. LYNCH: Yes. Yes it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did they have screens on the windows?
MR. LYNCH: I can’t recall.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you have maid service?
MR. LYNCH: That I don’t remember either. See I was only there 2 weeks.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Some dormitories had maid service I’ve been told.
MR. LYNCH: I don’t recall that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall how your dad had his clothes cleaned or how he took care of his clothes?
MR. LYNCH: No sir, I don’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about where did you eat? Do you recall that?
MR. LYNCH: There was a cafeteria right up from it. It was just a little bit east of it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you went back to Cookeville and the rest of your family came to Oak Ridge. When did that happen?
MR. LYNCH: That happened in December.
MR. HUNNICUTT: In ’43?
MR. LYNCH: In ’43.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And tell me who all in your family came with you back to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: My older sister was still in Michigan. She hadn’t came back yet. But my other sister and brother and my mother came.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where did you live when came to Oak Ridge with the rest of your family? Where did you live?
MR. LYNCH: The best I can remember is Holston Lane. 119 West Holston Lane.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What type of house is that?
MR. LYNCH: TDU.
MR. HUNNICUTT: TDU?
MR. LYNCH: A TDU is a two family unit.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Can you describe what the inside of that TDU looked like?
MR. LYNCH: The house was real nice. It had a big living room. It had a smaller kitchen, because of the way the heating system worked. It kind of cut out on your kitchen room but the rest of it, it had two nice bedrooms and bath. Nice place really.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you have to share a bedroom with one of your (interrupted)?
MR. LYNCH: My brother.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Your brother. And your sisters I presume bunked in another bedroom?
MR. LYNCH: Yes. Mother and Dad had a bedroom. They had their room and my sister had hers until my other sister came. My other sister didn’t come, I don’t remember when she came, but it was sometime later before she left Michigan.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what type of heat you had in that particular TDU?
MR. LYNCH: Coal.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So it was a coal furnace?
MR. LYNCH: Stoker coal.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where did you get the coal?
MR. LYNCH: I got the coal from, Bridgewater Coal Company had the contract. They delivered the coal.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where did they put the coal?
MR. LYNCH: They put the coal out in a coal box outside. If you had, there was two types of heat. One kind had a stoker in it and the other one had a great big stove, but the stoker was self-fed if you kept the coal coming to it and they fed it from outside, out of that box.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So the box was close to the house?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir. Yes it was. If you had the Stoker. If you didn’t, it was out on the street. Next to the street. That’s where I got a job later delivering coal.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So describe a little bit, what the, how the stoker works, uh, so you’ve got a box outside, and then how does this work?
MR. LYNCH: That is built close to where the front part. The best I can remember about the stoker, where the coal come in. You had a lever there that you could let the coal in and it went into the stoker and the stoker just took the coal and done what it was supposed to do, burned it and you got the heat. You put too much, you had a damper there that you had to control it to keep it from getting too hot. That’s the best I can remember about it, but it was a stoker.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was that an auger like affair that took the coal?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, it was. Yes, sir. So it fed it in.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Fed it in. So at this time, was your father’s job still the same as when he first came to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Still the same. So what about your sisters and brother when they came to live in Oak Ridge? Did they attend any of the Oak Ridge School System?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, they did. My younger brother and younger sister did. My other sister didn’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Can you remember which schools they attended?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, the Oak Ridge High School. They graduated from there. My younger brother went to Highland View School one or two years before he went to high school.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That’s an elementary school?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And then did he go to the high school?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about your mother? Did she ever work when she came to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: No, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: She was a stay at home mom?
MR. LYNCH: Stay at home mom.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about your sisters or your brother? Did they work when they got up to the age to work?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, later. Later, my sister went to work for Miller’s.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where did you do your grocery shopping? Or your mother did the shopping, I presume. Where do you recall that she did most of the grocery shopping?
MR. LYNCH: Dad done the grocery shopping and whatever store he could get whatever he wanted was where he done it. It was a little different right after that that I got married because I had a friend that got me a card for the PX down there and it helped me a whole lot because I wasn’t making no money. That was rough. And us I could get stuff down there pretty cheap.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, the PX, what’s the PX?
MR. LYNCH: That’s the Army. The Army PX.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now where was that located?
MR. LYNCH: That was located down where Downtown is except closer to the Turnpike.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about washing clothes? Did your mother…do you recall how she did that?
MR. LYNCH: Not really. When you think about it, she either had to done it… I guess she done it in a tub with a rub board. Of course we was all used to that before we come, but I’m pretty sure that’s what she done. She washed it in a rub board.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So your dad did the shopping?
MR. LYNCH: He done the grocery shopping.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And if your mother needed to go to the store to buy clothes or something other than groceries, how did she get to the store?
MR. LYNCH: She would either get there by me taking her or my older sister or Dad. That was the three that could drive.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about the bus service? Do you recall utilizing the bus service?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, we did. The bus service was pretty good then.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall how much it cost to ride the bus?
MR. LYNCH: I was thinking nine cents, but I’m not sure about that, but you could buy the little tokens that had the hole in it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So if you wanted to go from one end of Oak Ridge to the other on the bus, kind of describe how you went about doing that.
MR. LYNCH: You would have to know the bus routes to know which one to transfer to, but they would give you a transfer and you could transfer to another bus to go wherever you wanted to go.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So where you lived you probably rode the bus to Jefferson Bus Terminal and then from there further east? Is that kind of the route that was probably taken?
MR. LYNCH: Some of the family probably would you know, but being a young man, it wasn’t nothing for me to walk to Jefferson. I did more walking than I done anything else.
MR. HUNNICUTT: About how far was that?
MR. LYNCH: Oh, roughly a mile, mile and a half.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So when you’re referring to Jefferson, what is Jefferson?
MR. LYNCH: That was the shopping center they had down there and you had to keep an eye on it because you might see a line down there and want to get in it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Oh, stand in line for?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir. For whatever they had. You didn’t ask, you just got in it. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So Jefferson Shopping Center…Do you recall what was there? What type stores were at Jefferson Shopping Center?
MR. LYNCH: They was a little grocery store at the west end. They was a drugstore, a barbershop and a pool room, to the best of my memory.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall any, any happenings that happened to you at Jefferson Shopping Center that happened to you that you’d like to talk about?
MR. LYNCH: The wife and I went there an awful lot skating… they had a skating rink down there and we spent lot of time down there skating.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So other than skating, what else did you do for recreational activities?
MR. LYNCH: You could go bowling, go to the movie, basketball. I used to play basketball on a team, that we’d play teams around here in town and go different places and play.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you remember the name of the team?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah I do. Tri-County. Trico Motors. That’s who sponsored it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall where Trico Motors was located?
MR. LYNCH: Tri was located, how would I describe it? It was down on the Turnpike before you get to Illinois Avenue, about a block this side of it on the left going west.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you know what type of automobiles they sold at Trico motors?
MR. LYNCH: They had Oldsmobile and Pontiac, but before that they had… it’s an older car. It didn’t last long.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Packards?
MR. LYNCH: No.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, it doesn’t matter. I was just curious.
MR. LYNCH: Ok. But, they had the dealership for that. It was the only one around, really.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you played basketball a lot on the team. Do you remember some of your team members?
MR. LYNCH: Bill O’Kain was on it. What was the one we were talking about?
MR. HUNNICUTT: How about Carl Sanders?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, yeah, Carl Sanders. He was one of our favorites, because he was extra tall and played center. Glen Moses, Butterini, “Butter” Davis.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you ever visit the bowling centers around town?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, I did.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Which one did you visit more than the others and what was the name of that bowling center?
MR. LYNCH: I bowled mostly at Grove Center. Some at Jefferson.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How about movies? You attended movies, I guess, with your then girlfriend.
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And, was that a routine, once a week, or two or three times a week?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, we went to more drive-ins than anything else! (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: What drive-in was in the area at that time?
MR. LYNCH: Well, they was the one at, on Illinois Avenue and one at Elza Gate.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall the names of those drive-ins?
MR. LYNCH: Skyway was at Illinois and I can’t remember the one out at Elza Gate.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, after going to drive-ins and bowling centers and skating and basketball, did you ever do any hunting or fishing?
MR. LYNCH: I hunted. Squirrel hunt… Fish. Done a little fishing where you wasn’t really supposed to fish, but it was pretty good fishing.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about hunting? I don’t think they allowed guns in town, did they?
MR. LYNCH: The type weapon I used they didn’t really care too much about it. I was lucky to have an early model air rifle that was strong enough if you knew how to pump it and how to fix it was strong enough to kill a squirrel with it and that’s what we used.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did that air rifle shoot BBs or pellets?
MR. LYNCH: It shot pellets. .22-caliber.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, tell me about some of the places you went to go fishing.
MR. LYNCH: Most of the time we’d go down to K-25. We’d go down to Blair Road and cross the creek down there. We’d go back through the guard gate then and we’d go out there. There was a place that had an old bridge that they had condemned and blocked off, but you could walk across it and all this, that, and the other, and if it was raining we’d fish under it and if it wasn’t we would walk. And there was a guy that kept a boat down there that wasn’t supposed to be down there and we’d go get that boat. And we done a lot of illegal fishing then. We had these firecrackers with dynamite fuses in them, you know? You could get you a pretty good sized ball of clay mud and if you knew how to patch up one of them firecrackers, if you could find the right place to drop it and light it, why you’d get you some fish. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you walked to all these fishing holes?
MR. LYNCH: Until we got the boat, yeah, we walked to get the boat. Then we had to go out in the boat and bail the water out.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was that on Poplar Creek?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, it was. Backwater Poplar Creek.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, tell me about going through the guard gate down on Blair Rd. Did the guards want to know what you were doing?
MR. LYNCH: Not really. Just show them your pass, your badge.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, tell me about this badge. Is it something you had to have every day?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, you did. You had to have your badge if you went out the gate. You had to have it or you weren’t going out the gate.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was on the badge?
MR. LYNCH: Your picture and your name.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall when you went to get your badge and where it was that you went?
MR. LYNCH: Not for sure, but I believe it was Townsite.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let’s go back to your skating. Tell me about the roller hockey league that you played in.
MR. LYNCH: It was a travelling league, kind of like basketball. We only went to Nashville one time, but we went to Birmingham several times and we’d play different teams down there. Lacey Meyers, I believe was the guy and he would sponsor our bus trip down there and back. I was also captain of the “Monsanto” Roller Hockey Team; we often played the “Carbide” team.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Ok, you mentioned earlier about a young lady in your life. Who was that person?
MR. LYNCH: That was Helen. Helen Lynch. My wife.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was her maiden name?
MR. LYNCH: Davis, Helen Christine.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And how did you meet her?
MR. LYNCH: I met her at Miller’s. The first job I had. She worked in the Book Department and I delivered furniture. Helen lived on Hillside Road with her family. There was a trail between Hillside and West Holston Lane.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Miller’s department store?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where was that located?
MR. LYNCH: Jackson Square.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So what did you two do before you got married?
MR. LYNCH: We skated a lot. We bowled a lot. I had a car so we could travel around. We didn’t like to go out the gates much, but we’d travel around town and go to different places.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So when did the time come that you popped the question to Helen to get married?
MR. LYNCH: That was when her dad got laid off from the plant and he was, the family was going to go back to Chattanooga. Her dad would not leave an unmarried daughter here. We eloped, and we got married, September 8th, 1946. We went to Rossville, Georgia.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How’d you get there?
MR. LYNCH: In my 1933 Chevrolet. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, when you came back from Georgia, where did you two live?
MR. LYNCH: Let’s see….I lived with my dad.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And that was in the TDU?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That kind of got pretty crowded didn’t it?
MR. LYNCH: It did. It did get crowded, but later in life it got crowded worse because I had a flat top and he got laid off.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So when you lived in the TDU with your new bride and your dad and mom and your siblings, where did you two sleep?
MR. LYNCH: I think, I think we got our younger sister out with our older sister and we got the bedroom.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So about how long did you live there with them?
MR. LYNCH: Not very long, because I got a job with Bridgewater Coal Company. I had a friend, Conie Jenkins, that worked out there and, he knew I was needing a house bad. We were big buddies and he said, “I can get you the job, if you’ll drive a truck”, and I said, “Well, yeah I can handle that,” because the colored guys out there if they wanted a break they would just put it in granny and pop the clutch and break an axle and set there for about 15, 20, 30 minutes until he could change it so he got me to shuttle the coal trucks. All I done was, they would tell me, or I could figure it out after a while, after doing it a while, I knew where the next truck would run out, so I’d just swap trucks and come back and get another load. I also helped Conie repair the trucks.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, where would you deliver the coal to?
MR. LYNCH: To the drivers that had emptied that was delivering coal to the houses that had coal boxes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Across the city?
MR. LYNCH: Yes sir. All over.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So how long did you work there?
MR. LYNCH: Maybe a year.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where did you go to employment after that?
MR. LYNCH: I went to AEC at Division 5. [Story: I got a refrigerator for the guys on Warehouse Road.]
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was your job duties there?
MR. LYNCH: I was an Automobile Parts Clerk. I issued parts to the mechanics when they’d come up to the window that worked out in the garage.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How long did you work on that job?
MR. LYNCH: Until I got transferred.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Transferred to where?
MR. LYNCH: To Anniston, Alabama. I was working USED, AEC, you know government, and they transferred me there with Col. Ben B. Green. I bought his ’46 Chevrolet and sold my ‘33.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, when you went to Anniston, Alabama, what did you do down there?
MR. LYNCH: I was a Parts Identifier.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What does that mean, Parts Identifier?
MR. LYNCH: That means they would have stuff shipped in to them at the depot down there that maybe the tags got lost or could be just a pile of stuff that they wanted to get put where it was supposed to go, but they didn’t know where it went and you had to get the numbers and everything. You had books and codes you could follow and you could find out where it went to. And they had warehouses, different warehouses that you put it in.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How long did you stay in Alabama?
MR. LYNCH: About a year. Col. Green sold me his car.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And then where did you go from?
MR. LYNCH: I came back to Oak Ridge with, no, let’s see. I came back to the same place at that warehouse, but it was J.A. Jones, J.A. Jones had it and I worked for them a little while.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now was the job with Bridgewater Coal Company before this or after this?
MR. LYNCH: It was before that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Before that. So you came back to Oak Ridge to work at the same location you worked at before you went to Alabama?
MR. LYNCH: I was a Parts Identifier again on the night shift for J.A. Jones.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And tell me again about getting on a list for a house. How did that work?
MR. LYNCH: I don’t recall ever, I don’t recall ever getting on a list for a house, but to get a house, you had to work for a company that had enough allotments of houses to have one available or someone had moved out of.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, when you went to Alabama, did your wife go with you at that time?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir. But came back to Oak Ridge to have our baby.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And she lived with you and she came back to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And, so where did you live when you came back to Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Oooooh, that’s a good one. In a flat top on Indian Place.
MR. HUNNICUTT: A flat top. Tell me about what a flat top looks like.
MR. LYNCH: It’s just flat. (Laughter) It was a well-built house. Out of three-quarter plywood and it had all the cabinets and everything you needed in it. It had the beds and you just really, just had to move in. It had the refrigerator and the stove. It was ready for you when you got there.
MR. HUNNICUTT: It was already furnished?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How many bedrooms was the flat top?
MR. LYNCH: You could get a one, two or a three bedrooms.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And you had which type?
MR. LYNCH: I had a two bedroom.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And how did you heat that flat top?
MR. LYNCH: How did I heat that flat top? Coal stove. Coal stove. Sat in the front room.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Same type of air condition as the TDU? Just open the window?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. (Laughter) They wasn’t as big, but they worked.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what type of floors was in the flat top?
MR. LYNCH: Plywood and they had linoleum on them.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So about how long did you live at Indian Place?
MR. LYNCH: I lived there about a year or two.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And then where did you and your wife move to?
MR. LYNCH: From Indian Place, where’d I go? Illinois Avenue. I moved to Illinois Avenue.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And what type of house was that?
MR. LYNCH: That was a TDU. Back with my mother and father.
MR. HUNNICUTT: I see.
MR. LYNCH: Uh, huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, was your sisters and your brother still living there at the same time?
MR. LYNCH: No, no. My big sister wasn’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you lived with your parents again and how long did you live there?
MR. LYNCH: Not long. Not long.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Then where did you move to?
MR. LYNCH: I moved to Jefferson Avenue, 290-292. It was a TDU.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When did you obtain a house for your own?
MR. LYNCH: That’s when I worked for Bridgewater Coal.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, this is after you moved out of your parent’s house the second time?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When you moved out, and you lived, do you recall where that was?
MR. LYNCH: 211 Illinois Avenue.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And that was a flat top?
MR. LYNCH: No, sir, TDU.
MR. HUNNICUTT: TDU. So you’ve lived in 3 different TDU’s. Two in the same and one different?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now did you buy the TDU as it became available later on?
MR. LYNCH: The one on Jefferson Avenue. I bought it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, you mentioned earlier that your father ended up living with you. Tell me about that.
MR. LYNCH: He got laid off at Y-12 and we had the flat top and at that time, he was having trouble getting a job. He didn’t live with me too long and he got a job at the schools. Custodian at the schools.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, when your father lived with you, your mother and sisters and brother lived with you?
MR. LYNCH: Everybody lived in the flat top.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And that was a two bedroom?
MR. LYNCH: Best I can remember. It could of been a three, but best I don’t think it was. Believe it was two bedroom.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And everybody kind of bunked on top of each other, I presume?
MR. LYNCH: Well, where ever you could… on couches. But that didn’t last very long.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When was your first, did you have children?
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When was the first one born?
MR. LYNCH: Born in 1949.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where were you living when this?
MR. LYNCH: Anniston, Alabama.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was this a boy or a girl?
MR. LYNCH: It was a girl.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And her name?
MR. LYNCH: Barbara Ann.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you lived on Indian Place in ‘49 when Barbara Ann was born?
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And that was a flat top.
MR. LYNCH: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And your parents weren’t living with you at that time?
MR. LYNCH: No, sir. (Laughter) Had it by myself. Didn’t I?
MR. HUNNICUTT: And then, did you move to Illinois Avenue after that?
MR. LYNCH: I must have because things were getting worked up pretty good.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That was in the TDU?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah. That’s when the government was wanting to get rid of everybody and the city and the whole works. They was having trouble debating over what to do with it, so they sold it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, did your wife ever work?
MR. LYNCH: Oh yes. She worked at Miller’s.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That was when you first met her?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And do you recall where else she worked?
MR. LYNCH: Yes. She worked at the drug store and she worked at two different banks, the Hamilton Bank and the Bank of Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Which drug store was that?
MR. LYNCH: Service Drug. She worked at Townsite and she worked at Grove Center.
MR. HUNNICUTT: At the drug store at Grove Center?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall the name of that one?
MR. LYNCH: No, I don’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where was the bank located and what was the name of the bank?
MR. LYNCH: The bank was Hamilton National Bank and it was at Townsite and then after that, she I think that she had quit and they wanted her to work part time at the Bank of Oak Ridge and she worked there for a while.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You referred to Jackson Square and Townsite. What’s the difference in the two?
MR. LYNCH: No difference. Same place.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was Townsite the early name for what we call Jackson Square today?
MR. LYNCH: I think it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Ok, so now we’re in a TDU?
MR. LYNCH: Um hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And you’ve got a child.
MR. LYNCH: Yep.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And who you were working for at this time?
MR. LYNCH: Well, I was working for Maxim Construction out at K-25.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let me go back up a minute and ask about your mother. Other than being a house wife, did she do anything else outside the home for recreation, or things like that?
MR. LYNCH: Not really. She grew a little garden with Dad, you know, and that’s, that was her, that and flowers is all she cared anything about, being outside.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did she belong to any organizations?
MR. LYNCH: She was with the Sweet Adelines for quite a while and she was an extremely good seamstress. She sewed all the time. She made a lot of the kid’s clothes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did she play any musical instruments?
MR. LYNCH: She could play French harp a little bit.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When you say French Harp, is that a harmonica?
MR. LYNCH: Um hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about your dad? Did he do, what did he do outside of the home other than working? Did he garden or anything like that?
MR. LYNCH: He had a big garden. Up on Jefferson he had the two places down below the house, quite a ways. He’d garden down there a lot and then he had another down below Jefferson, down below Shoney’s. He had a garden down there for several years. Dad liked to hunt. He liked for me to drive too when we went hunting because we went all the way to Cookeville, Tennessee, and we’d go down there and hunt a lot. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Tell me about your sisters, their names again and did they marry?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, my older sister was Betty Willean and my younger sister was Doris Jean. Betty married a boy, Bruce Mynatt that had just come back from the Army that was a close friend of my wife’s that they lived pretty close together in Chattanooga, Lupton City, Tennessee. My sister Jean married, she worked at X-10 and she met her husband Harold Starr at the drugstore at Grove Center and they were married. He was a doctor and they moved them Galveston, Texas, then to Longview, Washington.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did they have any children?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, my sister had a boy and a girl, Betty. And Jean had two boys and one girl.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do they still live in the area?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, they do.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, the sister that married the doctor and moved to Washington state are they still in Washington?
MR. LYNCH: Well, he is dead, but the rest of them are still, no, one of the boys, moved to Arizona.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Tell me about what you did as far as community activities. Did you volunteer at any particular community or serve on any church committees or attend churches of any kind here?
MR. LYNCH: I was a charter member at Highland View Church of Christ. I was their chief electrician for a long time and things like that. I done a lot of electrical work on the side for people. I done some work down at the Boy’s Club when they got to where they needed upgrade and all, you know? The local over there volunteered to give them electricians to help with that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall any other community service that you did besides electrical work?
MR. LYNCH: Not really, except work on people’s cars. I done a lot of car work.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now when you worked on people’s cars or you did the electrical work, did you get paid for that work?
MR. LYNCH: I didn’t get paid for the electrical. I got paid for working on cars.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you do the car work at your house?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, I did. There was one, there was one guy that lived on Illinois Avenue that was in a TDU two doors up from when we lived there with Dad. He worked at a car lot down at Downtown and the guy that owned it was from Lenoir City. And they had me doing their work like if they sold a car that they didn’t like because it was missing, it wouldn’t do this, it wouldn’t do that, I’d pull the head and do the valves. Lefty Brown would let me use his rack down there. I put clutches in them. Stuff like that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Who was Lefty Brown?
MR. LYNCH: He was the one that owned the Pure Service Station down at West End on the left.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When you refer to the West End, was that the Jefferson area?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, that’s the service station.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let me go back to your housing. You lived in several different places and it’s kind of intriguing. You lived in a TDU and your father lived with you for a while there. And, did you sell that house and where did you go from there?
MR. LYNCH: I sold it to my dad. My dad wanted to buy it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall how much that was?
MR. LYNCH: $2800, I think.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So when you sold the house to your dad, where did you move then and who moved with you? Your wife and your daughter?
MR. LYNCH: My wife moved here, and Bobbie (Barbara), in 1962 to 239 East Drive.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where we are today?
MR. LYNCH: Right. Right so.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, you’ve had quite an adventure in moving from one place to another.
MR. LYNCH: Been around.
MR. HUNNICUTT: There is a particular automobile that I’d like to touch a little bit on. I think you called it your “Red’s 1933 Chevy”.
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Can you give me a little description of what we are talking about?
MR. LYNCH: Well, a 1933 Chevrolet, was one of them standard and the Master had the knee action and General Motors had a good thing going there until people couldn’t keep them up and keep oil in them and they went back to the standard and I had the standard. And that’s what I went to Rossville to get married in. It’s a good car, roomy, three speed shift. Had a six cylinder engine in it and I learned how to keep it going. Dad, he told me I would probably tear it up and I did, but I fixed it. I learned how to do the rods, tighten the rods. They didn’t have inserts in them then. They just had Babbitt rods and I learned how to do that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Someone told me about a story you told them about a ride that you gave a friend. Do you recall that in that ’33 Chevrolet, you picked up someone and gave them a ride and they paid you in a certain way?
MR. LYNCH: You’re not, yes, you’re referring to probably going out the gate and going to the liquor, where you could buy whiskey and I done that a time or two for a friend.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So how did they pay you?
MR. LYNCH: A little whiskey. An extra bottle. (Laughs)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So when you went home with that bottle of whiskey, what kind of reaction did your wife have?
MR. LYNCH: She found the back door and thrown it out and down the woods. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, I assume she guessed you needed the money more than the whiskey.
MR. LYNCH: Well, I quit hauling whiskey. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: One other little story that I’d like to touch on about that particular ’33 Chevrolet. I was told that you and Helen were pulled over by the military police one time.
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, we was out browsing around, you know, nice rainy evening and kind of dark you know, and this, that and the other. And he pulled me over and I didn’t know why, but I rolled down the window down, you know, and I asked him what was wrong and he said I had a gutted muffler and I said, “No, sir, I don’t have no gutted muffler”, and he said, “Oh, you do”, and I said, “Well, you’ve got a flashlight, why don’t you get down there and see.” The officer then asked for my driver’s license. I asked, “Which one? Government or state?” He then decided I didn’t have a gutted muffler and left. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: That’s quite a story. Fast forward a little bit back to when you got into the Electrical 270 Union and started doing electrical through them. Where did you work then?
MR. LYNCH: I worked for contractors at all three plants and some here in Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Those plants being?
MR. LYNCH: Union Carbide and K-25 and X-10.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you work at Y-12, also?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you retire as an electrician?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, I did.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When did you retire?
MR. LYNCH: I retired in 1990, at 62.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you do any electrical work today?
MR. LYNCH: No, sir, not if I can get out of it. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So what do you and your wife, Helen, do now for enjoyment?
MRS. LYNCH: We enjoy everything!
MR. LYNCH: Well, yeah, eating a lot.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You like to eat out a lot?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, all the time.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Oak Ridge seems to have a lot of eating places, don’t they?
MR. LYNCH: They’ve got some good places to eat.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Is there anything else you can think of that I haven’t touched on that you’d like to tell me?
MR. LYNCH: You were talking about the basketball team and I don’t know if you’re interested or not, but they’re having that Wheat thing down there now and I’m quite familiar with Wheat, the back road before they changed it, went right by the school.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, when you’re referring to Wheat, what are you referring to?
MR. LYNCH: The old school that was right on the Turnpike down there before Blair Road turns.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, Wheat was a community in early Oak Ridge?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, it was. Yes, it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And tell me again about what happened at the school at Wheat.
MR. LYNCH: They would let us use the gym down there on the weekends and we played basketball down there. Now, if you ever played basketball on an oiled floor, you’ve got a good experience coming if you haven’t, because your feet don’t, they’re not very sturdy and we played at Wartburg like that and they were that way, oiled floors. A lot of the old schools was oiled floors.
MR. HUNNICUTT: This was the basketball league you mentioned earlier with Carl Sanders?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And some of the other players?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir. That was it. That’s the players, that’s where we went. We played at Wheat quite a bit.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you traveled from Oak Ridge to different towns to play basketball?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, sir.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, tell me how you worked that related to the passes going in and out of Oak Ridge.
MR. LYNCH: Everybody had a pass.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about teams that came to Oak Ridge? Do you know how they worked that?
MR. LYNCH: I’m not sure about that, now. I can’t, I can’t answer that. I know they had to get a pass. You had to get a pass.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you ever play basketball in the old Scarboro School?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, I did.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you played at Scarboro and Wheat?
MR. LYNCH: Yes. Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was there any other places in the city – inside the city - you played?
MR. LYNCH: I can’t remember, but we would, we would play in some of the school gyms. But I’m not sure.
MR. HUNNICUTT: The high school, as well?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Can you think of anything else you’d like to relate?
MR. LYNCH: I didn’t tell you about my good luck being a time keeper for Maxim down at K-25. I got familiar with the crafts that I had to check during the day and keep their time and they had a, they had a brass badge number and I remembered all them after you come through the line once or twice, I would know you from then on because it made it easy, and I got real familiar with the electrical and that’s how I got in the electrical local and I took it from there. Wade Carpenter recognized my ability and got me into the Electrical Program. Thus, I became the outstanding Apprentence in that program. I became an electrician and electrical wielder with IBEW 270.
MR. HUNNICUTT: As you see Oak Ridge today versus when you first come to Oak Ridge, how do you see Oak Ridge as growing or has it kind of got to a point and stopped? What’s your view on that?
MR. LYNCH: It’d kind of be like a dream if you came here when I did and then you could come, come back and see what I’m seeing. It’s just changed so much, it’s unbelievable. People have no idea what it was like back then.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you ever have any thoughts of leaving Oak Ridge and not living here?
MR. LYNCH: No, not really. I didn’t like living here, but no, I didn’t. I stayed with the family.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Why did you not like living in Oak Ridge in the early days?
MR. LYNCH: Well, everything was, it was, it’s like, you’d never seen anything like that before. The city was dry, it was ok one day and the next day it’d be muddy. You couldn’t get around. The housing and the sidewalks, they were boardwalks, you’d have to be careful every once in a while one of them boards wouldn’t do what they was supposed to do, and sometimes they’d come get you and you’d have to move your car because they was going to plow your street up, then they wasn’t paved and, they’d shovel all your dirt, all the gravel, in the middle, they’d shovel all that up in the middle with a big patrol grader and they’d start it back in layers and they’d roll it. Wet it and roll it. Start it back in layers and wet it and roll it and when they got done it was just like it was paved and it wouldn’t last, but it was good while it lasted. Just things like that that you wasn’t used to. And if you wanted to go anywhere you had to catch a bus if you didn’t have a car, and had to wait on a bus, but you could find out, the bus driver would tell you where to catch the next to go somewhere.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So if you had your chance to do it over again, would you do the same thing you did?
MR. LYNCH: Yes, I would, because I wouldn’t met my wife. (Laughter) I didn’t get in, but it didn’t matter, I didn’t stay too long anyway. I lived in two trailers. (Laughter)
DAUGHTER (BARBARA “BOBBIE” LYNCH MARTIN): Yeah, when they first married, they lived at Gamble Valley in a trailer park.
MR. LYNCH: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: See that wasn’t on here, so I couldn’t touch on that.
DAUGHTER: And then they moved to Finch Way over at…
MR. LYNCH: Grove Center.
DAUGHTER: Grove Center.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That would have been interesting to describe the trailer, because a lot of people don’t know about how those were.
DAUGHTER: Yeah, he should have described that one real good! (Laughter)
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, not all of it. No, not all of it.
DAUGHTER: No, no. (Laughter)
MR. LYNCH: What happened with them trailers, the trailer wasn’t so bad. We didn’t know any better then, but you had to go whatever you call it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: The bath house?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, yeah. You done your washing, you done your bathing, you done everything. They had the men’s and they had the lady’s and of course, the ladies, the men had to go take the ladies.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You had water in a tank above the sink, didn’t you? So when you opened the faucet, the water would run out?
MR. LYNCH: In some, in some. The ones in Grove Center, they didn’t have anything. They didn’t have bathrooms. They didn’t have nothing. You had a pot with a lid on it and you didn’t have any water. You brought your water. But they were, they were actually movable trailers, that, they could move. It had the frame and the wheels still on there, but they were small, and we lived in them.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And the sink water just ran out on the ground outside the ground, didn’t it?
MR. LYNCH: Yeah, that’s it, that’s it. No plumbing. No nothing.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Yeah.
MR. LYNCH: Nothing.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, it’s been a pleasure interviewing you Red and I thank you for your time.
MR. LYNCH: Glad to do it, glad to do it. Yes, sir.
[End of Interview]
[Editor’s Note: Portions of this transcript have been edited at the request of Mr. Lynch and his family. The corresponding audio and video portions remain unchanged.]